24 replies to this topic

[thenodrog]

Am I missing something? People invested in some random company which in the words of Trekkies the world over has no effective lifeform but only exists in cyberspace and which appeared by most financial comparisons to be massively overvalued. Investment whose only hope of succeeding rests in advertising just so long as no one dreams up something better or more 'hip' than facebook. Fashions change, people's attentions can only be diverted for so long before boredom and disinterest take over. I wish I had had the stroke of luck it's founder Mark Zuckerberg encountered on the day he dreamed it all up. Early days yet but driven by nothing but greed it looks like those investors face the prospect of losing significantly.

New terms have entered the language to describe this condition... 'Zucked'(v) (and presumably 'Zuckers'(n)). The latter could hardly be more accurate. How often are we informed that 'shares can go down as well as up'? The best saying as my old mother frequently reminded me was that 'fools and their money are soon parted'. Now the strange modern phenomenon 'the blame culture' is weighing in... 'it's not our fault we were misled / misinformed', I'm gonna sue' etc'. Again my Mothers words dredged from her upbringing in the days of the great depression between the wars to describe such 'they've been led right up the garden path' seem at this moment to be the best fit.

Is it only me who finds this hilarious? Is it only me who hopes the lot of em crash and burn for their base stupidity? As for Mr Zuckerberg.... Do you and the all new 'er indoors' like English Championship footy by any chance?

Edited by thenodrog, 25 May 2012 - 08:08 AM.

[adopted scouser]

I love facebook. Over the years I've worked in towns up and down the country, and have been contacted by old mates/employees, it's fab although pretty addictive.

I too though can't grasp how investors will get a return. Advertising ? The site will probably remain free so I'm baffled.

[Biddy]

The Facebook floatation reminds me of the lastminute.com fiasco 12 years ago. Everyone wanted to jump on the Internet bandwagon and own a bit of the dot com world.

Didn't work out too well BBC News

No one ever learns.

[El Tombro]

Can't say I'm willing them to crash and burn! Facebook has done quite a lot for me and has inspired the technological age in the only place that Google didn't. I even got a job via Facebook a few years ago. Not sure what the animosity can be other than jealousy, theno, as you so strongly hinted at throughout your entire post. Personally it sounds like you wished you were Zuckerberg but because you aren't you want him to fall flat on his face.

[Biddy]

To be fair thats a bit of an odd reply. Can't see anything suggesting that facebook itself should crash and burn more that there are oddballs out there that paid above the odds for shares for a company that creates nothing but advert revenue. No one knows how much they may pay in dividend if anything yet people are willing to buy shares at $38-$45 just for the fact its facebook.

I think the "zucked" term is well justified in that there is now a law suit against facebook and Morgan Stanley for hiding projected revenue growth as not being what consumers were led to believe.

Still, the fact people buy at that price I think they deserve what they get.

[thenodrog]

The Facebook floatation reminds me of the lastminute.com fiasco 12 years ago. Everyone wanted to jump on the Internet bandwagon and own a bit of the dot com world.

Didn't work out too well BBC News

No one ever learns.

Can't imagine the buyers of Friends Re-united fared much better.

Oh well never mind eh?

[thenodrog]

Can't say I'm willing them to crash and burn! Facebook has done quite a lot for me and has inspired the technological age in the only place that Google didn't. I even got a job via Facebook a few years ago. Not sure what the animosity can be other than jealousy, theno, as you so strongly hinted at throughout your entire post. Personally it sounds like you wished you were Zuckerberg but because you aren't you want him to fall flat on his face.

In a nutshell ET. Come to think about it if he did I'd be laughing at him almost as much as he is laughing at his investors right now!

[Baz]

Due to the massive interest in buying these shares they were bound to be overpriced. Add that to the fact a lot of people bought in order to sell 1st day and try to make a profit on the boom, then the price was also bound to be too high.

Zuckerberg is still a major shareholder so the price is affecting his 'paper' wealth too, so I doubt he's laughing about this.

[Bryan]

It really is a company built on nothing at all.

If people just used it as a messenging service it would fall to bits.

These online sites have a limited lifespan, and I think facebook's going to run into problems at some point soon.

[ABBEY]

facebook? never heard of it.

[adopted scouser]

facebook? never heard of it.

Course you haven't ! How's the overseas bronco site going

[ABBEY]

its going good thanks. Ive got some ads that im hoping can self fund it and Im getting good reviews from all over the world and not one rant or swear word on it lol....if anyone wants to go thru the betting zone or discount page theres all sorts of deals on.Also I need pics of NFL days out.

if anyone wants to buy it for a million ,im easy as long as its offshore and csa free ha

[Ozz]

[El Tombro]

To be fair thats a bit of an odd reply.

It's an odd reply because I totally misread his initial post. Oops.

[thenodrog]

It's an odd reply because I totally misread his initial post. Oops.

Nowt new there then.

Edited by thenodrog, 31 May 2012 - 19:09 PM.

[Paul]

Can't say I'm willing them to crash and burn! Facebook has done quite a lot for me and has inspired the technological age in the only place that Google didn't. I even got a job via Facebook a few years ago. Not sure what the animosity can be other than jealousy, theno, as you so strongly hinted at throughout your entire post. Personally it sounds like you wished you were Zuckerberg but because youI aren't you want him to fall flat on his face.

This is an interesting comment. I'm registered on Facebook and Friends Reunited and TBH can't really understand the point of either. I would be interested to know how Facebook has helped you because in my experience it's simply the world's largest collection of chit chat, videos and photographs. Nothing wrong with that but I see no commercial value in it.

My wife used to use FB a lot, especially to keep in touch and "chat" with overseas friends. She says it helps her keep in touch with ex colleagues now she has moved to a different sector in her profession. I like the phone and email both of which still seem to work.

Many companies invite me to join them on FB. Why? What possible reason could I have for following M&S on Facebook, Twitter, YouTube or whatever? Now online shopping and the ability to research many things on the web is marvellous, saves me no end of time, but if I want a shirt I'll pop into M&S when I'm passing.

Sites like Facebook, Friends, You Tube, even this one, for me waste much effort with online advertising as I never click a link. If I want car hire, I google guess what? Car hire!! In fact it wasn't till Stuart mentioned it I realised the mobile adverts on the MB had arrived. Simply hadn't noticed them!

Friends Reunited was great fun and a highly original idea. Since it was bought out, ITV?, its done nothing. Facebook is built on a similar arguement, ultimately sand, and it's revenues on even less. It seems to me the shares are probably worth a sixth of the asking price, little more.

I use the web a great deal, really like it and am certainly not a dinosaur but the value of a company built solely in advertising to millions of people who probably aren't that interested? Making things earns money not advertising them!

If I need a drainage expert? Unsure........

Edited by Paul, 01 June 2012 - 05:52 AM.

[thenodrog]

This is an interesting comment. I'm registered on Facebook and Friends Reunited and TBH can't really understand the point of either. I would be interested to know how Facebook has helped you because in my experience it's simply the world's largest collection of chit chat, videos and photographs. Nothing wrong with that but I see no commercial value in it.

My wife used to use FB a lot, especially to keep in touch and "chat" with overseas friends. She says it helps her keep in touch with ex colleagues now she has moved to a different sector in her profession. I like the phone and email both of which still seem to work.

Many companies invite me to join them on FB. Why? What possible reason could I have for following M&S on Facebook, Twitter, YouTube or whatever? Now online shopping and the ability to research many things on the web is marvellous, saves me no end of time, but if I want a shirt I'll pop into M&S when I'm passing.

Sites like Facebook, Friends, You Tube, even this one, for me waste much effort with online advertising as I never click a link. If I want car hire, I google guess what? Car hire!! In fact it wasn't till Stuart mentioned it I realised the mobile adverts on the MB had arrived. Simply hadn't noticed them!

Friends Reunited was great fun and a highly original idea. Since it was bought out, ITV?, its done nothing. Facebook is built on a similar arguement, ultimately sand, and it's revenues on even less. It seems to me the shares are probably worth a sixth of the asking price, little more.

I use the web a great deal, really like it and am certainly not a dinosaur but the value of a company built solely in advertising to millions of people who probably aren't that interested? Making things earns money not advertising them!

If I need a drainage expert? Unsure........

Nice to agree on something then Paul.

btw I think the answer to the advertising stuff is in the word subliminal. We don't 'see' it but our minds do register it.... at lerast thats what the advertising execs will tell their clients.

btw2 remember 'blipverts' from the Max Headroom film? (They made fat people watching telly explode). I think the word even made it into the Oxford English dictionary a year or two back.

[El Tombro]

This is an interesting comment. I'm registered on Facebook and Friends Reunited and TBH can't really understand the point of either. I would be interested to know how Facebook has helped you because in my experience it's simply the world's largest collection of chit chat, videos and photographs. Nothing wrong with that but I see no commercial value in it.

I love originality and to be fair Facebook is second to none for originality (I'm talking about the idea behind it back in 2003 or whenever it was formed). It is what you make it, though. I've just limited it to real friends and acquaintances who don't litter it with boring crap. I mostly use it for viewing photos of what my chums and family have been up to lately. I rarely post anything myself but I do spot check on a daily basis to see what's going on.

Twitter, in a similar vein, acts as a news feed but for my techie stuff. It's priceless to me for keeping up to date with the latest developments in the industry I work in, rather than having to go out and "look" for the updates myself. I rarely Tweet because I am not an interesting person and rarely have anything of use to share. I don't use it for social purposes really. It's just the relevant stream of news I want in one place. I'm not a Twitter employee, by the way.

At the end of the day they're both what you want it to be. Either something relevant and useful or something carelessly allowed to get full of garbage and irrelevance. But they're both under your own control. What tickles me is people who say Facebook is full of spam and garbage yet they have added those friends themselves. They can always feel free to remove them and turn Facebook and Twitter into useful tools, as I have.

[Paul]

Fair enough ET I can understand the point.

As the discussion involves advertising and thenodrog mentioned a few weeks back the scary amount of personal detail knocking around on the web I was disturbed(!) when I came here this morning. I wasn't logged in so received the adverts bit at first. Two minutes prior to visiting the site I'd been checking car insurance online. The banner advert immediately offered me cover on the precise model, from the same insurers as confused.com. I vaguely know how this works as Glenn explained it to me but good Lord it's intrusive - I look at car insurance then visit BRFCS and find the same stuff popping up on here.

I find this very disturbing and makes you wonder about the wisdom of using online resources.

[SouthAussieRover]

I agree Paul.

It does make one wonder about all the links to the current European law about cookies etc that this site alludes to.

Then one logs on to BRFCS.com and adverts are targeting what one looked at elsewhere.